Sentence upheld for soldier who killed Palestinian

Jerusalem, (IINA) – A military court on Sunday upheld an 18-month prison sentence against an Israeli soldier who shot an already-incapacitated Palestinian man after an alleged attack in 2015, local media reported.

The court denied both appeals by the former soldier, Elor Azaria, to quash or reduce his sentence and by the prosecution for a harsher sentence, according to the Times of Israel.

The court said Azaria’s testimony had been unreliable and rejected suggestions that comments critical of Azaria by the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot had influenced the initial trial.

Azaria was filmed shooting Abdel Fattah Sharif in the head in the West Bank city of Hebron in 2015 by an activist with human rights group B’Tselem, opening a fissure in Israeli government and society between those who demanded an investigation and the soldier’s supporters.

While Azaria has argued his sentence, handed down in January, was too harsh because other soldiers have not been found guilty in similar situations, prosecutors have argued the sentence was relatively light.